Hundreds of real estate bloggers from around the country are gathering at the Sheraton Palace in downtown San Francisco this week, and I was lucky enough to join in on yesterday’s festivities as a guest of the Harper Team.

I only began blogging this past January and ever since then I’ve been trying to soak up all the information I could to become more successful with my posts. Even though the conference was geared toward real estate professionals, I still found the segments about ”Finding Your Voice” and “Monetizing Your Blog” to be very insightful. Spearheaded by Inman News, BloggersConnect lasted from 8 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon.

I also had the opportunity to attend my first trade show that day. The amount of free stuff they were giving out was mind-blowing. I practically shoved compasses, hats, mousepads and a decade’s supply of ballpoint pens into a giveaway bag I received and simply walked away. One of the kiosks did grab my attention though. Microsoft seems to be showing off its answer to Google Earth with their own version: Virtual Earth.

I can't stop saying that it was quite a day for me. It not too often that I get to brush shoulders with founders and presidents who happen to be some of the biggest bloggers in the real estate industry. My encounters actually made me start to consider the idea of printing out my own business card.

- Joseph Natividad

I was over at the Inman Bloggers Connect in San Francisco yesterday at the Palace Hotel. The Palace is a great venue but one of the main meeting rooms suffered from being adjacent to an alley or loading dock or a construction zone as I kept hearing the beeping of trucks in reverse. Then again, maybe it was all the coffee.

As much as I tried to connect with everyone, I left feeling that I had not connected with as many as I had wished to. So, it was more of a misconnect for me as there were just too many bloggers and too little time to connect with them all.

Joseph Natividad, new guest author for The Harper Team, attended as our guest. He was a great hit with all he met. We are working to get his blog up to speed which should happen this week. It was Joseph’s first conference and trade show. We stopped at everybooth so he could fill his bag with all the free stuff. He now has enough pens to get him through his first two years at UC San Diego where he will be majoring in Economics.

The first person I ran into was Teresa Boardman the evening before at the Thirsty Bear – Zillow’s Bloggers’ Beer event. Teresa is more petite than I had imagined and her half-picture doesn’t do her justice. So, I snapped a quick pic which she immediately objected to. I’ve been threatened with the wrath of God or worse if I publish it. So, to minimize my suffering I only publish the “other half” of Teresa here.

Kevin Boer (3 Oceans Real Estate) and Pat Kitano (TransparentRE) seemed to have the fix in with Inman as they were on stage numerous times throughout the day. Kevin did a great job as moderator of a panel. Here you see the two of them – doing what?? Kevin looks like he’s about to fly away and Pat is going for the free water. Sidekick Dean Guadagni (Dean’s Guide) was suffering a bad cold and looked it, so I burned all pics of him.

Meeting Jeff Turner was great. Unfortunately his wife, Rocky, was not able to make it. Jeff showcased his Real Estate Shows product at a panel on video/image technology for the real estate industry.  My opinion – Real Estate Shows seems like an easier more economical means to showcase homes than the other two video formats presented by the panel.

After speaking on at least one panel if not 6, Real Estate Tomato author Jim Cronin could not restrain himself any longer and stepped to the mic to ask advice from the “Top Bloggers” panel. Just goes to show that even when you’re one of the most recognized authorities on real estate blogging, you may still have a question or two.

The impression I had from the conference was that attendance seemed to about half seasoned bloggers and half new authors. I met many more people than I photographed which makes me wonder why – I usually am much more active with my camera. All that listening must have gotten in the way.